The latest AP Top 25 poll suggests the college football season is heading toward a major controversy

Alabama is now the near unanimous No. 1 team in the country after
its convincing 49-10 win over then No. 9 Tennessee in Knoxville.
But it's what is going on right behind the Crimson Tide that
hints at a brewing controversy.

We are still two weeks away from the first College Football
Playoff ranking, but it is hard to argue with the AP's top three
teams.

After Alabama, Ohio State remains No. 2 after beating
eighth-ranked Wisconsin. More importantly, Michigan has
leapfrogged Clemson, after the Tigers' latest close call — a
24-17 overtime win at home over unranked North Carolina State.

If this ranking is mirrored in the College Football Playoff
rankings, we are heading toward a monster showdown between Ohio
State and Michigan on November 26 in Columbus, Ohio.

If both teams win their games before November 26 — Michigan has
no games remaining against teams currently ranked, and Ohio State
has one such game, at home against No. 8 Nebraska — the winner
will go on to the Big Ten Championship game, where they will be a
heavy favorite to advance to the playoff.

But what about the loser of the Michigan-Ohio State game? Are we
sure that is an elimination game?

There is a good chance that the ACC, Big 12, and Pac-12 will all
have champions with at least one loss. Even if just two of those
conferences have a one-loss champion, the final spot in the
playoff could come down to those one-loss champions and a clearly
superior one-loss Michigan or Ohio State that didn't make it to
the Big Ten Championship game.

The playoff committee seems to favor conference champions. But
this year might be the one when one conference deserves two spots
in the playoff.

Of course, this would all be solved with an eight-team playoff.
But until then, it looks as though chaos will continue to reign.

Here is the latest AP Top 25 poll, with first-place votes in
parentheses: